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  How To Write A Good Programming Test

I’ve taken and marked a lot of programming tests in the past. I love doing them as it’s always good to see what challenges different programmers have come up with when designing them. Unfortunately, however, most of them aren’t very good. Below is a list of general ideas to help increase the quality of programmer tests. 1. Keep it relevant Too many of the tests have questions on content that simply isn’t relevant to the job. The whole idea behind a programming test i...

   Programming test,Interview,Questions,Pro     2011-08-26 02:46:44

  Solving easy problems the hard way

There’s a charming little brain teaser that’s going around the Interwebs. It’s got various forms, but they all look something like this: This problem can be solved by pre-school children in 5-10 minutes, by programer – in 1 hour, by people with higher education … well, check it yourself!  8809=6 7111=0 2172=0 6666=4 1111=0 3213=0 7662=2 9313=1 0000=4 2222=0 3333=0 5555=0 8193=3 8096=5 7777=0 9999=4 7756=1 6855=3 9881=5 5531=0 2581=? SPOILER AL...

   Problem solving     2012-04-05 23:40:35

  Programming: the benefits of taking a break

This post lists several benefits of taking a break during programming. You work smarter, not harder. Once, I worked really hard on a feature. For two weeks, 12 hours a day, I put in a lot of effort. After those two weeks, I took a break and came up with several ideas that made much of the work unnecessary.You think more clearly. Being tired has a similar effect as being drunk. At the end of a day, I often kid myself that I’ll just get this one thing finished quickly to have a fresh ...

   Programming,Tips,Break,Tired     2011-07-28 09:04:29

  How I Quickly Test and Validate Startup Ideas

Since I’ve technically been unemployed now for a week, I’ve spent most of that time brainstorming some new ideas and putting them into a Google Spreadsheet.This week I began going through that list and pulling out the ones I think have a chance and I narrowed a pretty large list down to just a few.Let’s take one of the examples from my list. It doesn’t have a name, so let’s just call it Patient Connect.The idea behind Patient Connect is that it integrates with ...

   Startup,Idea,Choose,Validation,Verify,Invest     2011-10-28 10:14:41

  JavaScript: Passing by Value or by Reference

In JavaScript, we have functions and we have arguments that we pass into those functions. But how JavaScript handles what you’re passing in is not always clear. When you start getting into object-oriented development, you may find yourself perplexed over why you have access to values sometimes but not other times. When passing in a primitive type variable like a string or a number, the value is passed in by value. This means that any changes to that variable while in the function are com...

   JavaScript,Function,Pass by reference,Pa     2011-07-28 11:05:25

  Why is programming unique profession

Why programming is unique profession - Presentation Transcript Introduction Some people says programming is difficult and for some others it is so easy. It not only depends on your capabilities, but your attitude for work. Programming is hard indeed, but not at all as difficult as life of a crook or joker who pretend, lie and act for living. Knowing what you do, life is going to be much more interesting and enjoyable for a programmer. You play with a dumb machine Computer is dumb machine. Unless...

   Programming,Unique profession,Reason     2011-07-22 23:55:09

  Whatever works for you

In my earlier 20s when I knew everything, I was a much bigger evangelist for my technology choices. I’m accused of fanboyism a lot more these days, but only because Hacker News keeps sending huge waves of people here who tell me I’m an idiot. But I used to be much more annoying with pushing my choices onto others. I’ve naturally reduced such evangelism as I approach 30 and realize I don’t know anything, but I’m now making a much more conscious effort to s...

   Choice,Product,Usability,Fittability     2011-11-29 08:39:09

  The problem isn’t you. The problem is the problem.

A friendly reminder: The problem isn’t you. The problem is the problem. –Steven Pressfield Some stuff is just hard. We start thinking we messed up. That it’s an issue with us. But it’s not. The work is hard and the problem is hard. You need to solve the problem, not fix yourself. The quote above is from Steven Pressfield’s incredible Do the Work. The audiobook (that’s a store link) is about 90 minutes long, so it fits in a s...

   Business,Problem,Strategy     2011-12-07 08:37:29

  5 Mistakes Developers Should Avoid before Launching Their API

Time is money in the API industry, and everyone wants to be timely for the API’s milestone event: its eventual launch. Delays in this event can be very costly, so the sooner the API can be integrated, the better. Many developers start their work knowing quite well that the clock is ticking. But prioritizing a quick launch—at the cost of everything else—can do a lot of damage in the long run. A rushed launch may result in unstable integration, a host of errors and bugs, lower en...

   TIPS,API DESIGN     2020-05-18 07:08:22

  Are You a Good Programmer?

If someone asks you to recommend a good programmer, who comes to mind? Do you consider yourself a good programmer? What criteria do you use to judge? In thinking about this, I realized that there are different ways that a programmer can be good. So I present to you The Four Kinds of Good Programmers. And in celebration of Whyday, I include quirky Why-styled illustrations* for your viewing pleasure! The Philosopher The PhilosopherThe philosopher loves to write well-defined, well-structured...

   Programmer,Inventor,Philosopher,Conquero     2011-08-23 07:56:26